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Donny's TOS Enterprise Interiors

So all display screens will have a decidedly retro vibe to them. No pretty modern-day or futuristic graphics. Very low-fi, low-res stuff. All the bridge monitors are the same as well, scan-lines and all.

In the first movie they faked the look of flatscreen monitors by using projectors (like 2001 did) and wouldn't have had scanlines as a result. Those screens looked better than twok since you didn't see the "surround" between the tv and frame, and would be "period appropriate"

You can see what i mean here.
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tmp2/tmphd1684.jpg
versus
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tsfshd/tsfshd0162.jpg
 
The switch to actual video monitors was primarily to solve several technical issues. Under the studio lights, the rear projection is a bit "washed out". With CRTs, the color could be "ramped" as needed. Playback was more easily controlled on the video screens, needing no time to re-thread the projectors. Finally, there was the issue of background noise. How many projectors were used in TMP? Honestly, I don't know, but depending on the shot, I'd think more than 20 could be running at a time. The noise had to be near deafening. While tape playback devices were not exactly silent, they were a lot more quiet and the machines themselves didn't have to be right behind the "stations". Video cables could bridge the CRTs with the playback devices positioned on the far side of the set.

It's specifically that last issue that was mentioned in one or more StarLog articles I read, well, decades ago.

Sincerely,

Bill
 
^I remember that being the explanation as well; the need to see the projected displays necessitated lighting the bridge as darkly as they did, and the projector noise meant that more dialogue had to be looped in ADR than might have been normally necessary.
 
TWOK is an interesting animal as well in that the bridge monitors were re-uses of TMP (right?) but then you had a graphics language using cutting edge CGI with the Kobayashi Maru sequence, the Genesis demo, and the Reliant/Regula/Enterprise scan ("outrun us and outgun us").

Then of course you have the displays in TSFS which look like they were done on something in the neighborhood of a Commodore 64 or Atari 800. (Does anyone know anything about these displays?)
 
TWOK is an interesting animal as well in that the bridge monitors were re-uses of TMP (right?) but then you had a graphics language using cutting edge CGI with the Kobayashi Maru sequence, the Genesis demo, and the Reliant/Regula/Enterprise scan ("outrun us and outgun us").

Then of course you have the displays in TSFS which look like they were done on something in the neighborhood of a Commodore 64 or Atari 800. (Does anyone know anything about these displays?)

AFAIK, many of the projector loops from TMP were transferred to video for use on the CRT monitors in TWOK. But for TSFS it would appear as if someone quickly produced new various graphics, including crudley scanning a lot of Franz Joseph materials. Which is strange because they already had some better quality FJ scans from the TMP projector loops.

TMP:

TWOK:

TSFS:

It looks as if whoever did the display graphics for TSFS was using inferior equipment to do so, or had poorer abilities. Or perhaps they used lower-quality monitors??

ANYWAY...I'm sticking with the look in TWOK, since my project is of a TWOK nature:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSq2Up5ROCo[/yt]
 
It always bugged me that they used painfully-obvious TOS-era deckplans and outboard schematics for those monitors, especially the dorsal view of the TOS Connie for the break-in alert in Spock's quarters. They already had perfectly good refit schematics available from the 1980 TMP Blueprints set by David Kimble, which they DID use for both the shield monitor at the weapons console and the damage control console in TWOK! Why the hell didn't they use those? Very sloppy work there (not you, Donny, but the graphics people who worked on TSFS).
 
It looks as if whoever did the display graphics for TSFS was using inferior equipment to do so, or had poorer abilities. Or perhaps they used lower-quality monitors??

Well, that's what I mean. The shot from TSFS with "security alert" is an actual computer generated image. The ones from TMP and TWOK are just slides photographed on film.
 
And the absolute worst:
normal_tsfshd0674.jpg
 
So I tried my hardest to finish the Officer's Lounge, but couldn't mind the motivation. I'm going to revisit the area in the future when the inspiration hits again.

A few weeks ago, I started fleshing out the basic architecture of the Officer's Quarters. I realized it was much harder to get a good start since there are very little references to go on, even with the room's redressed appearances in early TNG. So I decided I'd finish all those props I was making first, then go back to the the cabin. Here are some very early shots of the "cove" area of the Officer's Quarters, after a couple of days of blocking and refining the basic shapes.


http://www.trekbbs.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
 
Oh man, I'm looking forward to this. I've never been able to adequately figure out the layout of this room. I'm interested in your take on it.

As I'm sure has been mentioned before, Bones' ST-IV line to Spock is particularly apropos:
He means that he feels safer about your guesses than most other people's facts.
 
IIRC, that particular suite of rooms was redressed many times over the course of TNG, seasons 1-7. In particular, Worf, Data and Geordi's quarters for the run of the show. Somewhere along the line that curved wall got straightened out, which is a shame. It always looked pretty cool.
 
Yes. The round walls of the "cove" with their carpeted panels remained through TNG season 2. In season 3, the carpeted panels were removed and replaced with many horizontal protrusions/support beams. The set remained that way until the filming of TUC, where the room was repainted and converted to the crews quarters with bunk beds and lockers where the magnetic boots were discovered.

The "sleeping area" was converted to Kirk's quarters in TUC. After TUC wrapped, however, the room was almost totally reconstructed with straight walls and many different compartments so that the room could be changed easily to represent other junior officer's quarters. Voyager used these rooms as well.
 
Whipped up a generic "scan grid" screen, purposefully retro-tech.

Great, professional work. I love your attention to period technology for the screen graphics. I can see this turned into a physical model on TWOK set easily.
 
this thread is friggin amazing to look at! I am immensely impressed by the detail that you have put into these models. I cannot wait to see more of this project
 
No double bed for the captain? I suppose that's where those "meditation cabins" from Roddenberry's TMP novelisation come in handy!
 
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